Happy Endings
by Rae325
Summary: Robin wants to go to Regina, wants to kiss her and touch her and tell her how much he loves her and how grateful he is that she's doing this for him. But he made vows to another woman, a woman who lies frozen in Regina's vault beside a heart that still glows. OQ post 4x05


Robin aches to touch her.

Regina is sitting on the floor of the Storybrooke library, a book in her hands, and Henry's head resting in her lap, his eyes closed and his chest rising and falling evenly. There's a stack of books beside them, and Robin knows that Regina won't give up until she finds a cure.

She won't rest until she gives Robin his happy ending.

It's only in his tent at night, a sleeping Roland leaning on his chest, that Robin admits to himself that the only woman who could bring him a happy ending is the woman he's staring at now. Robin has resigned himself to being without true happiness, but still it aches to look at Regina and know what he's lost.

One of her hands is softly stroking her son's hair, the other holding a book of ancient magic that she searches desperately for a spell to save Marian. Robin wants to go to Regina, wants to kiss her and touch her and tell her how much he loves her and how grateful he is that she's doing this for him.

But he made vows to another woman, a woman who lies frozen in Regina's vault beside a heart that still glows.

As long as it does he must honor his vow.

* * *

><p>Robin finds Regina the next night in her crypt beside his wife's body.<p>

His footfalls are quiet, a well honed skill, and it isn't until he is standing beside Regina that she notices his presence.

She gasps and startles, and Robin wishes he had announced his presence earlier as Regina presses a hand to her abdomen and takes deep, measured breaths. She's holding a chalice that emanates thick, blue steam.

"Robin," she breathes out. Her eyes are wide when she stares at him. Wide and honest and so open. Robin hates himself for the trust she places in him, trust he has betrayed each day since Marian returned. "This potion is for restoring people to health. Spells need to be specific, and I've done my best to tailor it to Marian's situation, but still I don't know if it will work."

"I suppose the only way to know if to try it."

"I wasn't going to use it without telling you."

He smiles at her, hates that she thinks for a moment that he believes she would hurt Marian. "I trust you Regina."

She looks at him, a question in her eyes, and he nods at her. They both stare at the chalice, before Regina dips two fingers into the cup, coating them with blue liquid before reaching forward and pressing her hand to Marian's lips.

There's a blinding light.

Then a gasp.

Robin arms are around Marian, her body warm and soft against his.

When he looks up from his wife's shoulder, Regina is gone.

* * *

><p>Robin follows Regina down Main Street that evening, must thank her for what she has done. She still hasn't noticed him when Rumplestilskin appears out of the darkness in front of her.<p>

"There's no way that spell would have worked dearie."

"But it did," Regina tells her former mentor.

"No it didn't. And you know it."

"What do you want?"

"Just wondering why you're hiding the truth from your _true love." _The imp cackles, and it makes Regina ill, makes her remember when she was little more than his marionette.

She won't be his monster again. She turns and walks away.

And then she hears heavy footsteps behind her, knows it to be the sound of Robin running after her. "Regina wait!" his voice is desperate and pained, as it has been each moment since Marian returned. She knows when she turns, his eyes will be full of hurt that tears at her heart, hurt that she would do anything to take away from him.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asks, his hand reaching out for her before remembers and clenches his hands into fists at his side.

"It doesn't matter."

"How can you even say that?" Robin's voice drops, soft and deep, and she thinks she can hear love and wonder seeping through each syllable when he says, "You saved Marian with an act of true love."

"It doesn't matter."

"Of course it matters," Robin insists, and she hears how much he loves her, how grateful he is that she loves him too.

Regina thinks she will break if he keeps looking at her like this. "You have your wife back," she tells her, and then she turns and walks away. This time he lets her.

* * *

><p>Robin hates himself more with each passing day.<p>

Marian knows, he is certain, must know why he finds himself unable to touch her how a husband should touch his wife. They don't speak of it - _of Regina __- _but he is certain that Marian knows.

She busies herself with Roland, tries to content herself with her son, tries to accept that her husband is in love with another woman.

But at night he sees his wife's shoulders shake with silent tears once she believes him to be asleep. He hates himself terribly for it.

* * *

><p>That hate grows in his stomach when he sees Regina.<p>

Robin has begun to sneak away from camp in the middle of the night to watch her, and he thinks it's slowly killing him.

He watches Regina and Henry, cuddled together on the couch with a bowl of popcorn, laughing at the television. Robin feels such joy knowing that Regina has her son back; the boy who she loves more than anything is tucked against her side.

Robin has a wife, and so he shouldn't wish that he could share Regina's joy, see her radiant smile when she watches her son.

It aches to see her joy and not be able to share it, but it aches more when he sees her pain.

Because there are nights when Robin watches Regina kiss Henry's forehead and turns out his light with a smile. But then she closes his door and walks down the hall to her own bedroom, and once the door is shut, Robin watches her sink to the floor, her body shaking with sobs.

* * *

><p>"Many men died because of me," Robin tells Regina one cold December afternoon when he stumbles on her sitting in the woods. He takes his place beside her, thinks of the day long ago when he found her here reading a letter about her sister and doubting her own strength. He longs to comfort her now as he had been able to then, but he fears all he can bring her is more pain.<p>

"I haven't always been an honorable man. I stole from the rich, but in the beginning it was for the sheer joy of seeing them suffer, of watching men who thought themselves better than others fall to ruin. I stole recklessly, and if people were hurt it mattered little to me. Until one day, I was on a job that went horribly wrong. I killed a man, a noble, and I didn't give it a second thought, not until I saw his daughter run to him. The girl couldn't have been much older than Roland. She was crying for her papa, and like the coward I was I ran. But I vowed that day that I would change. I vowed to live an honorable life."

"You aren't that man anymore."

"But what if I am? Without honor, what if all that I am is that thief?"

"Robin," she sighs, and she wants to reach for him, to hold him and offer him any comfort she can. "You are a good man. You're a wonderful father and a loyal husband."

He hears the words catch in her throat, hears how it hurts her to say them. But she has supported him in this choice of his, this honor, even as it tears them both apart.

"How can I be a loyal husband if my heart is yours?" he asks desperately. He must know. How is he anything good and deserving when all he wants is to pull Regina into his arms and never let go?

"Robin," she breathes out, and he knows he's hurting her. "You believed that Marian was dead. She _was_ dead." _At my hands_, she doesn't add.

But he knows, always knows, through his own pain and grief, he sees hers and reaches out to her before all else. "And now she is alive because of you. You left your past behind Regina. I have only ever known a woman with love and kindness and strength in her heart."

"Then you've never really known me at all," she tells him, but Robin sees the desperate desire in her eyes to hear that her words are a lie. "When Marian returned, I wanted to destroy her."

He's smiling at her, knowingly, lovingly, and she can hardy believe that he continues to love her when she sits here and tells him that she wanted to kill his wife mere weeks ago.

"And yet she lives because of you." Robin reaches forward and takes Regina's hand in his own. It's the first time he's touched her in months, and he nearly cries with the relief, with how right that touch makes everything feel for an instant. "I wish you could see yourself through my eyes Regina."

Her eyes are shining with tears, a small smile on her lips, and Robin hates himself for taking away her hope of happiness and love.

"I am so sorry for what I've put you through," he tells her through gritted teeth, biting back a howl of pain. It hurts to look at Regina, her eyes wide, revealing the parts of her that he knows she doesn't share easily. Except with him she does, even now she gives herself to him freely. It is a gift that Robin knows he doesn't deserve.

Though he is unworthy, he longs to hold her, wants nothing more than to bury his face in her chest, to hold her and finally let go of everything he has locked inside himself since Marian came back to his life.

He doesn't. He lets her slip her hand from his grasp and walk away before she begins to cry.

* * *

><p>Robin keeps his distance for nearly a month. He knows how much he hurts Regina by being close, by needing her and loving her all the while returning to Marian. So he keeps his distance.<p>

Until the Snow Queen attacks.

Regina goes off to fight alone, and when Robin learns of this he is furious and terrified. He follows her into the forest, but he's too slow, and he's failed her again, failed her, and she's lying there on the ground, frozen. Her lips blue, skin deathly pale and so horribly cold against his when he pulls her into his arms.

For a long moment he forgets everything he knows, and he simply cradles her in his arms and wails and wails. And then he remembers, Marian and the ice, a kiss that couldn't break a curse.

But this one will.

He leans down and presses his lips to hers, and even freezing against him, her touch feels so right. He kisses her and knows that this will work, feels as if he is breathing life into her body, feels her skin warm under his touch.

Regina wakes with a gasp. For a moment she can't understand it, can't understand why he's so close to her, why his lips are touching hers. And then she remembers the Snow Queen freezing her, realizes that Robin must have been the one to wake her. Robin is pulling away so he can stare at her. His hands are holding her face, softly, reverently, and she can feel his love. There are tears rolling down Robin's cheeks, but he's grinning and looking at her like she is everything that he wants in the world.

And then they aren't alone. She hears Henry's voice yelling from the distance, hears the heavy footsteps of him running towards her. There are other voices, and Regina can pick out Marian's from the crowd. "Go," Regina whispers to Robin, because he may still love her, but he isn't hers.

"Regina," he breathes, doesn't want to leave her here.

"I'm ok." He made his choice, and she promised herself that she would ensure Robin's happiness even if that happiness isn't with her.

Regina feels her strength returning when she sees Henry running to her. She stands on shaking, numb legs, and steadies herself for her son. He runs into her arms, and crushes her to him, burying his face in her neck. Her little boy, always her baby, even now as he hugs her tightly with the strength of a young man. She can feel his tears against her skin and his chest shakes with silent sobs. "Shhh, it's all right Henry. I'm all right." He cries and tells her he loves her. Cries and cries against her shoulder as she cradles him and promises that she isn't going away.

* * *

><p>Later that night Henry is snuggled against Regina's side on the couch, her arm around his shoulders and a warm blanket spread over them, when the doorbell rings. Henry offers to get the door, and Regina can see the fear that lingers in his eyes at the idea of letting her out of his sight. So they rise from the couch together, Henry helping steady Regina, her legs still feel like lead, her body cold and slow. But she smiles at her son, and tells him that she's ok as they walk to the door. She expects Snow to be there, doesn't even check the peephole, and so Regina finds herself staring dumbly and wordlessly in surprise when she opens the door to see Robin.<p>

"Regina," Robin says, and seeing her here begins to calm the dread that has lived in his stomach. Even though he had been the one to wake her, even though he had seen with his own eyes that she was safe, his heart had thumped anxiously since parting in the forest.

Henry looks between his mother and Robin Hood, announces, "I'm going to go hang out in my room for a while, ok Mom?"

Regina leans forward to kiss her son's forehead, spends a long moment cradling his cheeks in her hands and offering him her best reassuring smile before he nods and and leaves the room.

"I'm sorry for showing up unannounced," Robin tells Regina. "May I come in?"

Regina agrees, invites him into the living room, sitting down immediately on the couch before Robin can see how weak she remains. He sits beside her, and Regina feels suddenly uncomfortable in her sweat pants and t-shirt, finds it even harder to close herself off from Robin without her suits and her makeup.

"Are you all right?"

Regina nods, the motion small, and Robin wants to pull her into his arms and feel her skin against his again. He wants her so much, needs her desperately, finally is beginning to understand that he doesn't know how to live without her now that she's been in his life.

"When I saw her curse you I felt my heart stop."

"Robin, I'm okay."

"You nearly weren't. You went to fight her on your own, and if I hadn't been there-"

"But you were, and you saved me."

Regina's eyes are so wide, so full of wonder at the idea that Robin loves her enough to break a curse. He hates how much she doubts, hates that she doesn't know that she is worthy of so much love, doesn't know that he loves her with every piece of his soul.

Robin smiles at Regina, his eyes wet when he whispers to her, "True love's kiss."

"Robin," Regina sighs. "Just because you were able to save me doesn't mean you have any obligation to me."

"I have kept myself from acting on what is in my heart for so long. I told myself it was honorable, but all I've done is hurt everyone. I am so terribly sorry."

"I don't blame you. Your wife is alive."

"But I've already broken my vow to her. She isn't the woman I'm in love with anymore."

Regina shakes her head. It still feels incredible to have Robin's love, but with him so close it hurts terribly to not be able to embrace him, to know that she can't have a future with him.

"Marian and I talked," Robin says, and Regina can see the pain in his eyes, and she knows how much it hurts Robin to cause his wife pain, knows that Marian was confronted with the depths of her husband's love for another woman when Robin broke the curse. "Our marriage is over. In truth it has been for 30 years."

"I'm sorry."

"I thought what I was doing was honorable."

"I know," Regina says, and she wants so much to soothe Robin, to reassure him even though it hurts her terribly, that it's all right, that she understands if he wants to continue his marriage.

"I clung to honor and to my vows, because I didn't know who I would be without them. I still am not certain that I do. But I love you desperately Regina. I love you with my whole soul, and I hope that you might be able to find it in your heart to give me a second chance."

Robin watches Regina's face, utterly disbelieving, and then slowly a smile, a wondrous smile that lives for a few seconds before she shuts it away. "I don't want you to give up what's important to you. Marian is your wife."

Robin reaches out, and he knows he probably has no right to touch her now, but he can't stop himself, must at least feel her skin against his. Her hand is cold, but she lets him hold it as he tells her, "I am in love with _you_. And it isn't honor to remain with Marian if I am unable to love her, if I am constantly longing to be with you. I know that I've hurt you, and I understand if you aren't able to trust me again."

"I never stopped trusting you. But I can't stand between you and Marian; I can't be the reason you give up the code you've chosen to live by."

"I was wrong to think that I could go back, but I can't. I know that now and so does Marian. I am so sorry that the decision I made caused you pain." His eyes are burning fiercely, so much pain and guilt blazing there. "I don't know how I can ever make this up to you."

"I don't blame you," Regina says, and Robin is struck by how Regina has hid nothing from him, how she hasn't tried to rebuild that walls that he'd seen for a year in the Enchanted Forest. She's just here with him, hurting, he knows she's hurting, but she's here and open to him nonetheless.

Robin moves closer to Regina. "I love you," he says, watches the smile that Regina can't contain. "I made a mistake thinking I could leave what we have in the past. Please Regina, I am begging you for another chance."

"I want that Robin, I do. But…"

"If you're not ready to be with me after what I did I understand, but if I made you happy then know that I will be waiting and hoping that you can find it in your heart to give me a second chance."

"Of course you made me happy."

"Will you allow me the opportunity to try to make you happy again? I want to spend my life making up for how I've hurt you."

"You don't owe me anything Robin."

"This isn't about obligation. This is about love."

"Robin."

"What can I do? How can I make this better? I will do anything."

Regina looks at him, his eyes are pleading. He looks desperate for a chance to be with her and absolutely terrified that he may not have one. She can't understand how anyone could want her this much. But Robin does, her soulmate is sitting her and asking for her back.

"Ok," she says before she can stop herself, before she can think of all the ways he can hurt her again.

Robin sobs in relief before reaching for Regina. She moves towards him, lets him take her in his arms. He's longed to feel her against him for so long, and now he has her in his arms, her face pressed against his neck, her arms wrapping around his back, and it is the first peace he has felt for so long.

Robin is crying against Regina's neck, hiccuping back the sobs, and he knows he has no right to be the one to fall apart. not when he hurt Regina so terribly. But her hand is in his hair, her fingers at the nape of his neck, and he never thought he would feel her touch again.

She crying too after a moment, sniffling and choking on it, and it hurts, aches deep in Robin's chest, and he thinks he will never stop hating himself for how terribly he's hurt her.

"I'm so sorry," he chokes out, his voice thick with tears. "I'm so sorry."

Regina nods against him, still crying, her hands grasping at his shirt. Robin has never seen her fall apart this way, and he just holds her until her her sobs subside and then she's laughing and he can feel her smiling against his neck even as her tears keep soaking through his shirt.

She pulls back from him and looks him in the eyes. She's smiling and her eyes are shining at him so brightly.

"Thank you," Robin whispers. "Thank you," he repeats over and over until she covers his lips with her own.

* * *

><p>"You're certain you're comfortable with me staying?" Robin asks as Regina pulls back the bed covers. He stands awkwardly next to the bed wanting nothing more than to join her, but not if she isn't ready. She must know that he will wait forever for her.<p>

"If this is where you want to be-"

"It is!" Robin assures her rushing forward to sit beside her. "I never want you to doubt that. I've wanted to be here every day, but I was so foolish. I'm sorry."

Regina smiles at Robin. "I know."

"Thank you," he tells her, grasping her hands in his and pulling them against his heart. "I'm not going anywhere ever again unless you wish it. I promise you Regina."

She nods, and he knows she doesn't believe him, but she's here giving him a chance to win back her trust.

"We can talk in the morning," Regina tells Robin. "Right now I need to sleep. It turns out that being turned into a block of ice takes a lot out of you."

"Are you all right?" Robin asks, suddenly terrified that he has missed that she's been injured.

"Just tired." Regina pulls Robin back against the pillows with her, his head resting on her chest, her fingers carding through his hair. "You saved me Robin."

"I was so afraid. I wouldn't have survived losing you."

Robin looks so terrified still like the thought of losing her haunts him, and Regina can hardly believe that someone could love her this much. He tilts his head up, presses a kiss to Regina's jaw.

"Go to sleep," he whispers against her skin. "I'll be here when you wake."

Her arms grasp onto him tighter for a moment until her breathing evens out and Robin knows she's asleep.

* * *

><p>Regina wakes in the middle of the night to find Robin staring at her, tears streaming down his cheeks.<p>

"Robin what's wrong?"

"I'm sorry."

"For what?" she asks, immediately awake, her mind jumping to the worse: he's leaving, realizes the mistake that he's made in wanting to be with her.

"I hurt you."

"I told you; I understand why you chose Marian."

Robin shakes his head, doesn't deserve such understanding. "I missed you so much; every day I wanted nothing more than to be with you. I thought I was doing what was right, but I hurt you. I don't deserve you."

She laughs painfully. "Don't deserve the woman who murdered your wife? I think it's the other way around."

"Oh Regina. I am so sorry I made you feel that way. You deserve to be loved." He smiles at her, weaves his fingers through her hair. "You _are_ so loved, and I want to spend the rest of my life showing you that."

Her smile is wobbly and her eyes are wet, but she is the most beautiful sight Robin has ever seen.

"I will spend my life trying to make up for how I've hurt you," Robin vows.

* * *

><p>Regina opens her eyes the next morning to find Robin once again lying awake in bed beside her. This time there are no tears, just a content smile.<p>

"You're staring at me," Regina says as she rolls onto her side to face Robin.

"I love you."

The smile that lights up her face gives Robin hope that they can get back what they had been building before his choice ruined everything.

Regina feels it, has admitted it to others, and now with him here and looking at her like this, she wants to tell him, wants him to hear the words. "I love you too."

Robin's face lights up with the most beautiful smile Regina has ever seen. She wishes to be the cause of that smile every day, promises herself that she will do anything in her power to make him this happy.

His hand skims up and down her arm. "This is everything I want," he tells her. "Waking up with you in my arms is everything I want. You just make me so happy Regina."

She feels like a young girl again, stunned by his love and by her own happiness. She drifts back to sleep in Robin's arms.

* * *

><p>Henry finds Regina at the kitchen table when he comes downstairs for breakfast. She has his storybook open and is frowning at a page that Henry can see contains a picture of her.<p>

"The book doesn't matter you know?"

"Henry! You startled me. You're up early."

"I went to bed early," he says sitting down next to her. "You made your own happy ending Mom."

"The book didn't change."

"That's because your story isn't over yet."

"How do you know all this?"

"Operation Mongoose." Henry grins at his mother.

"But we never found the author."

"And you're worried that you're going to lose your happy ending?"

Regina reaches out to brush a lock of Henry's hair out of his eyes. "How did you get so smart?"

He shrugs and keeps smiling. "You and Robin are making your own happy ending. And he's totally not going anywhere, because he is in love with you. And before you start telling me that I'm too young or anything like that, just talk to Robin because I know he loves you. And you know, cause he's standing right behind you."

"You're a smart lad," Robin says, walking over to join Regina and Henry at the table. "Your boy is right," Robin tells Regina. "We are writing our happy ending together. I know you're scared, but I'm going to be here every morning to remind you that you have no reason to be. I'm not going anywhere."

"Neither am I," Henry adds. "I'm home, and I don't ever want to be anywhere else."

Regina reaches out her palms, and Henry and Robin each join their hands with hers with a smile.

Regina looks at the drawing in the book, the Evil Queen standing in front of her mirror with so much hate in her eyes. The book snaps closed in a flash of white magic.

It's time to write a new chapter.


End file.
